‘Twin Peaks’ Season 3, Episode 10: Candy-Colored

Season 3, Episode 10

Before his return to “Twin Peaks,” David Lynch had been working a lot with digital video, in various shorts and in his 2006 film “Inland Empire.” Lynch being Lynch, he often seemed more interested in accentuating the flatness and fuzziness of the image than in tweaking the technology to try to replicate the richness of film.

One of the somewhat surprising pleasures of this revival then has been how great the show looks, thanks in large part to how the director has mastered using these new cameras to get the effects he wants. Unlike the original series, which brought cinematic depth to network television, the new one exploits digital’s tendency toward murkiness whenever there’s anything other than a bright color on the screen.

This week’s episode is maybe the most color-conscious one of the new “Twin Peaks.” As has been the case throughout the run of the show — dating from Agent Dale Cooper’s first dream sequence in 1990 — the hue that pops the most is red. That’s the unmistakable color of the Joneses’ door in their cookie-cutter Las Vegas subdivision; and it’s the color of the shoes that Janey-E’s wearing when she slowly realizes that the new version of her old husband has become sexually desirable.

Red is also the color of the coffee cup that Steven Burnett flings through the window of an RV while he’s yelling incoherently at Becky Burnett. That scene doesn’t last long enough for us to find out anything more about the Burnetts. What most stands out about the fight is that it shatters a quiet, peaceful moment, with Carl Rodd sitting outside, strumming a guitar, singing “Red River Valley.” The colors outside are so light, and gentle on the eyes ... and this garish red hunk of ceramic comes flying through, accompanied by an ugly yowl.

The color that dominates this episode, though, is pink — and not an eye-popping neon pink, but a softer, hazier, almost sickly shade. There are pink flamingoes on the lawn of another Twin Peaks RV-dweller, Miriam Sullivan, when another next-generation Twin Peaks nogoodnik, Richard Horne, beats her to death for sending a letter to the police about his hit-and-run. That scene comes early in the episode, and is filled with so many vivid details that show how much Lynch and his crew are on their game: from the mismatched paint job on Richard’s car to the way Miriam is barely visible behind her glass door as the young Horne’s reflection fills the rectangle.

There’s a milky pink beverage on the table of Sylvia Horne’s home when Richard — her grandson — storms in to steal her money and jewels, in what may be the most nigh-unbearably unpleasant scene in “Twin Peaks: The Return” so far. In a scenario reminiscent of some of the more vicious and cruelly ironic sequences in Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange,” Richard’s assault on Sylvia plays out in a room where Johnny Horne has been knocked to the ground and rendered immobile by his restraints, all while a makeshift robotic bear with a glowing helmet repeats the same phrase over and over.

It’s something of an endurance test, but the shrillness of the scene serves a purpose, creating a strong contrast with an episode that’s otherwise either moodier or more broadly comic.

One of the funniest moments in the series so far also involves the color pink. At the swingin’ Vegas pad of the brothers Bradley and Rodney Mitchum (last seen beating down and throwing out their casino manager after Dougie Jones won 30 consecutive jackpots), three pink-clad cocktail waitresses, Sandie, Mandie and Candie, flit around, serving as both maids and ornamentation. Candie (played by Amy Shiels) gets all the good business, including when she whacks Rodney on the face with a remote control after a fly lands on him, then later sobs, “Can ... you ... ever ... love ... me?!” in an over-the-top Lynchian way while the Mitchums are trying to talk.

Candie’s best bit comes when the boys send her down to the casino floor to find out why insurance agent Anthony Sinclair is sniffing around. They watch her through security cameras, as what’s supposed to be a simple assignment turns into her inexplicably gesturing on the small security screen, while the Mitchums watch silently, with mounting impatience. When they finally explode, it’s as a perfectly timed comic beat, like something out of “The Honeymooners.”

When Candie’s not being goofy or running errands, she and her co-workers lean against the wall of the Mitchums’ office, looking like perfectly posed pale pink statues against the blank industrial gray walls. That’s really what makes the red and pink stand out so much this week — because it’s set against so much steely shadow. When this new “Twin Peaks” goes dark with the color palette, it goes so dark that it’s sometimes hard to tell whether there are distinct shapes hidden within the blacks and grays, or whether that’s just the high-definition TV screen struggling with how to process all the monochrome.

This episode is at its inkiest when Duncan Todd returns to the story, sitting in his Las Vegas office and telling Anthony Sinclair the best way to get rid of Dougie (by manipulating Duncan’s rivals, the Mitchums). It’s dim again when Deputy Director Gordon Cole is drinking wine in his hotel room and drawing a picture with a black Sharpie of a hand reaching toward what looks to be a dog with antlers — shortly before he gets the news that Diane has been sending ominous, encoded text messages, and that the Cooper doppelgänger was seen at the site of the New York penthouse murders.

Before receiving those two tidbits, Cole answers a knock on his door from Albert and has a dazed vision of Laura Palmer. Even more than the reminder that this sad teenage homicide victim is still the key to “Twin Peaks” (“Laura is the one,” the Log Lady tells Hawk this week), the scene of Cole’s vision is striking for how different the footage of the young Ms. Palmer is from what we’re seeing on the show now.

In a series that’s been about changing times, it’s remarkable how deftly Lynch uses the quality of the image itself to illustrate a world becoming shadier, starker and — in every way — more gray.

Extra Doughnuts:

• There is another pink beverage in this episode, similar to the one on the Hornes’ table. It’s in the hands of Nadine Hurley, as she watches one of Dr. Lawrence Jacoby’s YouTube rants. She’s sipping the drink and watching the screed while sitting inside what’s presumably her own business, Run Silent, Run Drapes. She finally got her patent!

• Here’s your weekly “Deputy Chad is awful” update: He’s apparently been conspiring with Twin Peaks’s criminal element, as evidenced by the way he intercepts the letter from Miriam to Sheriff Truman after Richard Horne calls to warn him that it’s coming.

• There’s a strong fraternal motif emerging this season, as the Horne brothers have been joined by the Mitchums, the Fuscos and even the Trumans (although Harry is absent). So far there’s been no attempt by Lynch and Frost to give the preponderance of siblings any deeper meaning. Maybe it’s just easier with multiple characters to stick them with the same last name and the same basic background.

• Rebekah Del Rio (who years ago delivered a memorable performance of “Llorando” in Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.”) gets the lengthiest non-Nine Inch Nails set yet at the roadhouse, ending this episode with a dreamy rendition of the Lynch-penned “No Stars,” with Moby on guitar. It’s a beautiful song, and Del Rio looks stunning, decked out in stark black-and-white against a hazy red curtain, bathed in soft crimson light.

Correction:

An earlier version of this article misidentified the character turned out of a casino by the Mitchum brothers. It was the casino manager, not Dougie Jones.